Yoga baby

I don’t normally add pictures that I take from my cell phone onto our blog but this was a special request. These were taken on my iPhone while were hanging out on our balcony a couple of weekends ago. Jason was showing off his yoga moves and Jasmine decided she wanted to join in.

Eating by Tanger Outlets

Once a year, Jason and I will splurge on ourselves and go out to the Tanger Outlets in Riverhead to get some new clothes. Since we’ll be going to Chicago for our anniversary soon, we decided this past weekend was as good a time as any. I did my research online and printed out tons of coupons to the stores we planned to hit up so we were prepared.

Naturally, another aspect of my preparation was centered around food. I knew we’d be out there all day and I didn’t want to settle for food from the food court. I turned to Google for places to eat in Riverhead and one of the first hits was Briermere Farms, which is a farm stand about 5 miles from the outlets. At first I dismissed it as a produce stand but then I looked at the reviews on Yelp. People claimed that it was the best pie they ever had and were driving out to Riverhead JUST for the pies! I found it a little hard to believe so had to find out for myself. I saw from some reviews that they also sold muffins there so I knew Jason could be convinced to check them out for breakfast. With our AM meal decided, I turned my focus to lunch. After some more Googling, I came across this post from Yvo, one of my favorite NYC bloggers! I’m always in the mood for seafood and the list of viable options for food out in Riverhead is not very long to begin with so Buoy One quickly made the cut.

Here is a picture of the apple tart (basically a big hand pie) from Briermere Farms.

They were just loading these into the case from the oven when we got there. I still think of this pie daily and am trying to think of ways to convince Jason to drive out there again just for this. First of all, it was ginormous so a great deal at $5. Jason and I shared it and still had enough to take home for my mom to try. The crust was incredibly crispy, flaky, and light. But it was substantial too. I prefer a high crust to filling ratio and this had exactly that. The filling itself was delicious as well. The apples were perfectly tender and not too sweet. It really blew my mind. We also got a strawberry muffin which we both really liked but to be honest, I was too busy enjoying the apple tart to take a picture of it We spent $14 on the muffin, tart, a jar of apple butter, and a no sugar-added fresh apple/raspberry juice. Not a bad way to start off our day of bargain hunting!

Briermere Farms has traditional whole fruit pies and cream pies that are both fresh and frozen. Next time we go out there, I will definitely bring a cooler so that the pies can withstand the wait in the car while we shop at the outlet. That was the only thing deterring me from buying a few pies to take home this time! The only negative thing I could see people saying of this place is that there’s no seating but we happily opened up the trunk of our SUV and ate inside while people watching

We shopped for a few hours and then headed 1.5 miles away from the outlet to Buoy One for lunch.

When we arrived, we were pleasantly surprised to see an outdoor patio area and since it looked like the rain was holding off, decided to take a seat out there.

Jason got the fried cod sandwich and a fried shrimp sandwich and I got the fried whole belly clams. We are so healthy In my defense, I only get fried whole belly clams once in a blue moon because unfortunately, only a few places offer them.

The menu at Buoy One is actually quite extensive with tons of specials and different preparation styles. Please don’t let our order deter you if you are a health nut because it’s definitely not a fried-seafood-only type shack. We were just in a fried seafood type mood If Jason could eat shellfish though, I think I would’ve gotten one of their lobster bakes. It smelled so fresh and fantastic and came in a big steaming pot. I was ogling the one set at the table next to ours.

Overall, our meal down to the cole slaw and cocktail sauce was great and inexpensive. I think the total for 2 beers, two sandwiches, and the platter was $40. We left happy and quickly because as soon as we paid, it started to pour.

Luckily, by the time we got back to the outlet, the rain had stopped and it was nice weather the rest of our trip

Doggies!

A couple of weeks ago, we went to the American Kennel Club Dog Show with our awesome Uncle B. Jasmine had a great time and we managed to avoid any physical injuries this time!

Happy Birthday Elaine!

My friend Elaine from Pennsylvania, who went to NYU with me in NYC, is now living in Washington DC but is headed to Michigan for graduate school next year, even though she was originally going to go to Yale in Connecticut. Did you follow that?

Well anyway, Elaine was in NYC last month for her birthday and despite the ridiculously long wait for lanes, we went to the always fun Brooklyn Bowl. I knew it would be one of the last birthdays in a few that I’d be able to celebrate with her so I baked her a cake to make it extra special.

I went with Dorie Greenspan’s Perfect Party Cake for the cake portion, layered it with whipped bittersweet chocolate ganache, mixed berry preserves, and my go to Swiss buttercream frosting.

Layering the cake with all of the fillings

Once you go Swiss buttercream, you never go back. Here it is whipped to a glossy sheen, which can take upwards of 5 minutes to happen.

Frosted cake. Unfortunately I didn’t have time nor did I make enough frosting to make a crumb coat first and then frost so it didn’t come out the smoothest or best looking

Jason was in India so I was all alone in watching Jasmine. This is what you allow your child to do when you need a 2 hour block for a project. I highly recommend it.

I really wanted to color some frosting, pipe some decorations, and write “Happy Birthday Elaine!” on the cake but like I said, I didn’t make enough frosting, didn’t have enough time to make more, and had ran out of cabinets that Jasmine was allowed to “explore.” Hence, the sprinkles that make it look more fitting for a 1 year old’s party than a 28 year old’s.

Picture of the birthday girl with our friend Tim, who just happened to be wearing a shirt matching hers. And no, I don’t believe Elaine was yet drunk at the time this picture was taken.

2010 Food Bloggers Bake Sale

Full post still to come but seeing as how I am always super late with the posts, I wanted to get the pictures up here first for you all to peruse Thanks to everybody who came out and helped us raise money for Share Our Strength despite the cold and threat of rain the entire day! From the bake sale alone, we raised $1,165. There were more online donations and cash donations from my co-workers though, which will put the final tally closer to around $1,350. I will put up the final number as soon as I have it.

A special big thank you goes out to Eric and Rob at the Brooklyn Flea, who donated a TWO spaces to us at their great Fort Greene location. A huge part of our success was due to being at a venue like the Flea where there was tons of foot traffic and people looking for food to begin with! So thanks again guys~

I know there are tons more pictures floating out there and when people send me them or the links to their own blog posts about the bake sale, I will link those here.

First farmer’s market trip of 2010

Warm weather!

I’ve always loved NYC during the springtime almost as much as I love NYC right before Christmas. The people here just seem generally friendlier, probably hopeful for the warmer weather after the post-Christmas, winter dreariness and trips to the farmer’s market are much more enjoyable in the warm sun.

That being said, I don’t think I’ve ever looked forward to warmer weather as much as I have this year. Having a child inevitably adds prep time for all trips compared to when it was just you and your partner. Add in the cold weather and then you have to take into account multiple pant layers, winter jackets, hats, mittens, foot muffs on strollers, stuffing a child that is 18 lbs unclothed versus 25 lbs with all the layers into a car seat, etc… and you’re talking a good 30 minutes extra in the winter time. That’s IF you are willing to risk your child getting sick, you getting no sleep because of said sickness, and your parents/her grandparents yelling at you for taking their precious granddaughter out and MAKING her sick.

Needless to say, we didn’t necessarily hibernate but we were definitely more choosy with our going out adventures and they more often than not started off with frustrations.

So naturally when I heard that last Saturday was supposed to be 75 degrees, I made grand plans to spend most of it outdoors. Unlike most of my grand plans that never happen though, this actually did!!

Here are some pictures that I took from that day. I particularly like the ones where she’s trying to shove a sugarless blueberry muffin that’s as big as her face into her mouth. I hope you enjoy them too!

Christmas 2009

Yes, I realize that it is officially Spring. But seeing as how it is cold and wet out today in NYC, I figure it wouldn’t be that inappropriate to put up the pictures from our trip to Hong Kong and then Florida for Christmas 2009. It was a trip of epic proportions. We went to Hong Kong for 8 days, where incidentally, I don’t think Jasmine slept for more than 3 hours at a time. Then flew back to NYC, had a 3 hour layover, and then flew directly to Florida.

I look at these pictures and think back to Christmas, which was a short 3 months ago, and realize how much Jasmine has grown. She’s since become a speed walker, sleeps through us picking her up and taking her out of the car seat, and talks non-stop. I would love to be able to take her back to Hong Kong because I feel like the trip would be much more enjoyable and relaxing this time around. Then she could only crawl, was a very light sleeper, and didn’t say much of anything. If only I could convince Jason…

Hot Doug’s at Astor Center

Surprise surprise, I am behind in posting about our lives lately so naturally this took place all the way back in October. I’m hoping to play catch up in the next week or so and get pics posted from our holiday trips to Hong Kong and Florida.

************

A few months back whilst browsing the interwebs, I saw a post on Serious Eats about an event they were sponsoring at Astor Center’s new space with Hot Doug’s. Truth be told, I had never heard of Hot Doug’s prior to this but as soon as I saw the menu, I knew we had to get tickets. If I remember correctly, it was $60 for two and the meal included 6 Dos Equis beers, an amuse, 2 Chicago-style hot dogs, two of their foie gras topped hot dogs, and an order of duck fat fries.

[singlepic id=4693 w=480 h=360 float=center]

Ed Levine and Doug Sohn

Beer

Chefs in the kitchen

Jason

Jason and JJ

Amuse of fancy pigs in a blanket with spicy mustard (not surprising that these were Jason’s favorite of the whole night, aside from the beer that is)

Chicago-style hot dog with the works

Foie gras topped hot dog

Duck fat fries

All of the food was good but surprisingly, my favorite was the “homely” Chicago dog. I thought it would be the foie gras dog but without anything acidic/sweet/tart, it was a bit too rich for me. The Chicago dog was perfect though with the refreshing and crunchy fresh vegetables on top. I think the duck fat fries had been fried a little bit earlier so by the time we got to them, they weren’t as crispy as I would have liked but the flavor was good nonetheless.

The highlight/memorable moment of the evening for me though wasn’t the food. It was getting to meet and speak to Doug Sohn for a few minutes as we waited in line to get our food. Yes, he is THE Doug behind Hot Doug’s. He stood at the front of the line and spoke to each and every person at the event. It wasn’t surprising that he did though because he apparently mans the register at the storefront in Chicago almost all the time. Being owners of a food establishment ourselves, we totally respect his passion for his craft and appreciate that he loves to talk to his customers. He is a very funny, down to earth, and approachable guy.

When he learned that we were new owners of a food place, he quickly offered up some hard-earned advice. He told us to never look at blogs and online review sites (i.e; Yelp). He said that our goal shouldn’t be to please everybody and that we shouldn’t change what we do based on the opinion of a few people. That’s hard for me to do and whilst I don’t agree 100% with that philosophy because I do think that listening to our customers is important, I do understand that there will always be naysayers no matter how good the food. Now every time I read a negative review or comment on Twitter about us, I think about Doug’s advice, take a deep breathe, assess whether there’s any merit in the person’s opinion, and usually just close down my browser because I find none.

In any case, Jason and I are heading to Chicago for our annual anniversary trip (read about last year’s in New Orleans here) this year. So far I have about 30 places on our Chicago Google map to go to but rest assured, Hot Doug is at the top of the list and one of the places that definitely will not be missed.

Eating with a Fork

Jasmine has made considerable progress from when she was slurping mush to now, where she can “feed herself.” I use the phrase feeding herself rather loosely of course because if you or I fed ourselves like she does herself, then we’d get kicked out of every restaurant in America.

In the video below, we were in a patient mood and decided this particular Saturday was as good as any to start letting her try to use utensils — and she LOVED it. Now two months later,
we have worked into the pattern of feeding her, helping her feed herself, letting her feed herself, and then letting her stir her food around in circles. It makes meal time a fun mess.